Morning Buzz: Thursday 5.8.08

Councilwoman Janice Hahn says, "We have great confidence in Gina Marie Lindsey," but acknowledges the way contracts are issued at LAX could be better. LAT, DNAlso: Lindsey disputes Seattle audit. Breeze

Fighting over the 405-101 interchange

This time the issue is whether some of the wildlife refuge there should be sacrificed to improve flow between the southbound 405 and northbound (or westbound) 101. DN

Developer will set aside 178,000 wild acres in the Tehachapi range and make available 62,000 more for public uses. In exchange, environmental groups will not oppose the development of 26,000 homes, plus hotels, condominiums and golf courses, at the far end of the Grapevine along I-5. LAT

Betty Pleasant explains the whole black thing

In another column pushing Mark Ridley-Thomas over Bernard Parks in the Supervisor race, the Wave's Soulvine columnist tells some recent South L.A. history from when Mayor Jim Hahn dropped Parks as LAPD chief: "Even though I had serious problems with Parks as police chief, I was incensed by what all those white people were doing to him and I used the bully pulpit of my paper to help whip up rage against those people, to circle the wagons against those people who were bringing down a Black man. Our support for Parks had nothing to do with his being chief, and everything to do with his being Black. Yes, the instinct to close ranks racially does come to the fore, and to quote my grandpapa again, 'sometime it be like that.'" Pleasant was then city editor of the Sentinel. The Wave

The director of preservation issues for Hollywood Heritage "was a friend and someone with whom I worked closely during the last seven years to ensure that Hollywood’s history would be preserved and celebrated as it entered its second Golden Age," blogs Council President Eric Garcetti. Nudelman died this week at age 52.Also:Patrick Range McDonald in the LA Weekly.

Jonathan Gold visits the new Father's Office

He calls the original "easily the most controversial restaurant in town, either a mecca of cuisine or a haven for louts, a hop-scented mosh pit or the source of the best moderately priced dinner on the Westside." About the new Helms Bakery location in Culver City, Gold writes, "It’s a lot bigger than the first one, and your chances of acquiring a table, a bowl of curried mussels, a glass of exotic tap ale and an allotment of new friends at any given time are exponentially greater than they would be at the Santa Monica bar." LA WeeklyAlso:The Lakers' night at Mozza.

Dodgers' 50th anniversary drives him batty

Lifelong fan Neal Pollack's take in the CityBeat cover story: "The Dodgers have crafted a silly, if not repulsive, carnival of gauzy manufactured nostalgia. I’ll say it if no one else will. The Dodgers’ 50th anniversary in Los Angeles celebration is irretrievably lame." CityBeat

Elaine Dundy, author was 86

The novelist and biographer of Elvis Presley had been married to critic Kenneth Tynan and traveled in elite literary and Hollywood circles. She died in Los Angeles May 1. LAT